NG 401

New game 401 is now available.


Round 1: D I T C Z D I A L

Oh, for an E, with the familiar DIALECT / CITADEL pair almost on offer.  Instead I had ADDICT.  After time I checked up on DIDACT, but it is not listed (although DIDACTIC is).

The other sixes are ITALIC and DIACID ("(of an acid or salt) having two acidic hydrogen atoms").

My selection: ADDICT


Round 2: H N B G S E E O R

I had HENS, SHEEN, wondered about HENGES (valid), and BEGONE.  After time I noted GENRES / GREENS as two other sixes.

There is a seven here, though: ENROBES.

My selection: BEGONE
Best: ENROBES


Round 3: Target 430 from 75 4 8 8 5 10

My first thought was to adjust from 6*75, but that was a little awkward.  Instead I used the factor of 10 with the solution 430 = (75 - 4*8)*10.

My selection: 430 = (75 - 4*8)*10


Round 4: I E T M A N G O Y

I had TIME, INMATE, TEAMING, and MONTAGE.  After time I noted other sevens of MAGNETO / MEGATON and ANYTIME.

Seven seems to be the best to be done; the others are AMENITY, EMOTING, MOATING, and MINTAGE / TEGMINA (plural of TEGMEN: "a cover, covering, or integument").

My selection: MONTAGE


Round 5: S E L R I T K A O

I had RILES, RELIST (not valid, as it turns out), wondered about KILTERS (not valid, I don't think, even with the revision to acceptability of phrase terms), STARLIKE, TALKERS, TAILORS, wondered if ISOLATER might sneak in as a variant spelling (it does not), and -- with the recent revision -- STALKIER*.  Fortunately I recalled from searches long past that STARLIKE was valid.

Eight does seem to be the best to be done, with STARLIKE / STALKIER* the only ones.

My selection: STARLIKE


Round 6: Target 549 from 100 5 8 2 10 4

The option of 9*61 was a little tempting, but with only one odd number it was too much of a stretch.  I went for the standard method instead and a bit of a tweak: 549 = 5*(100 + 10) - 8/(4*2).  Then I considered another tweak to work down from 600 with 549 = (10 - 4)*(100 - 8) - (5 - 2).

My selection: 549 = 5*(100 + 10) - 8/(4*2)


Round 7: D E I F A S N M O

I had FADE, FADES, ANOMIES, DAEMONS, SIDEMAN ("a male member of a jazz band other than the leader"), FOAMIES (FOAMIE: "a surfboard made from plastic foam"), and wondered about FANDOMS (valid, although easily overlooked -- FANDOM is only listed at the end of the second entry for FAN).  After time I checked up on DOMAINES -- I recall the Scrabble solver I use for this presenting it a lot -- and it also was not valid.

Seven is the best on offer; the others are DOMAINS / DAIMONS (DAIMON being a variant spelling of DAEMON), MAIDENS / MEDIANS, MASONED, and MISDONE.  FADE-INS requires the hyphen, it seems, so is not valid.

My selection: SIDEMAN


Round 8: Target 465 from 25 8 2 5 7 5

The nearby multiples of 25 did not look promising (requiring making 18 or 19), so I pulled out the factor of 5 and found that the cofactor was 93.  That led me to a solution of 465 = (25*8/2 - 7)*5.

Seen just now is that the alternative factorisation 15*31 could be made to work with 465 = (2*5 + 5)*(8*7 - 25).

My selection: 465 = (25*8/2 - 7)*5


Round 9: SEE SIMMER

Luckily I considered the -ISE fragment early and so found MESMERISE.

My selection: MESMERISE (2.0s)